US drone attack kills eight in Pakistan
A US drone attack has killed at least eight people in the Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region near the border with Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said.
The attack on Saturday came in North Waziristan, where for the past month the Pakistani military has been fighting the Pakistan Taliban and other groups.
The AP news agency quoted two Pakistani security officials as saying two missiles were fired at a target in Data Khel, a town about 36km west of North Waziristan’s capital, Miranshah.
The AFP news agency separately reported that 11 people had died.
An official told AFP the dead included two “important” commanders of the Pakistani Taliban, but he refused to reveal their identities. The identities and nationalities of others killed in the attack were not disclosed.
The assault by Pakistan’s military was launched after a dramatic attack by fighters on Karachi airport which killed dozens of people and marked the end of a faltering peace process with the Pakistani Taliban.
Jets and artillery began hitting rebel targets in mid-June to try to and ground forces moved in on June 30.
More than 400 fighters and 25 soldiers have been killed in the assault so far, according to the military, though the area is off-limits to journalists, making it impossible to verify the number and identity the dead independently.
US drone strikes have picked up since the military offensive in Waziristan after a near six month hiatus. Since June 12 at least four drone strikes have been reported in the tribal areas.
More than 800,000 people have been forced to flee from North Waziristan by the assault, with most ending up in the nearby town of Bannu.
There have been fears that many fighters also fled, including some from the feared Haqqani network which is blamed for numerous attacks in Afghanistan.
Source: Al Jazeera